Send me email updates about messages I've received
on the site and the latest news from The CafeMom Team.By signing up, you certify that
you are female and accept the Terms of Service and have read the
Privacy Policy.

Anyone else have this problem? How bad is it?

Basically, a 13 year old who was skipping school, stealing money, and letting his grades slip dramatically because of excessive x-box playing had his console taken away by his dad. He ran away and hasn't been seen for 2 weeks. Even Microsoft is adding part of the reward money to help find him.

My kid is too young for this still, but it does scare me. World of Warcraft, Halo, Call of Duty... I've heard about kids (and even adults) becoming so addicted to these things, it's like crack. Any of you have problems with this in your homes? How do you deal with it?

How about not bringing it in the home in the first palce. My son is 21 years old and never became addicted to any of those games because I never bought one for him. He never complained he was missing out on anything either.
If you do have the games in your home, give the child a choice - either a half hour TV show or cartoon or a half hour game time -they can't have both. If they opt for the game time when they are finished take the game away and put it up.

My son likes these games also but we don't have a game system so the only time he gets to play them is at friends houses. If any of my kids ever started doing what this kid was doing I would be doing a lot more then just taking video games away.

Nope, don't have that problem. My kids have to earn time for the playstation and/or computer. And they can only bank up to an hour (each) every 2 days. There are so many other things for them to do that they don't need to sit in front of video games all day. My kids actualyl LIKE to use their imaginations and play.

To me, it sounds like that kid was a spoiled brat. I hope they find him, if this is true. Running away because your game was taken away? That is ridiculous, even as a 13 year old. Perhaps his parents should have intervened before the kid started acting out to play the game. Thank goodness my parents did not have those games for us when we grew up. I will not have them for my son either. It is not because I think they are bad, I just think we will find more constructive things to do. Just like I did as a child/teen.

my stepson is 16 and does nothing around the house and is cocky with me and his dad,his dad(hubby) just lets him do this becouse he is tierd of getting on him,he would rather have an xbox for xmas instead or a drivers liscense.and he makes up lies to my inlaws so they will buy him stuff,he tells them i call him names and i hate him,but i never say any of these things.and he gets babd grades,already got held back twice,and is failing this year,we have him fulltime his mohter does not help with anything not even xmas.

IMHO there was something WAY bigger going wrong than a video game. If your kid is willing to go that far over a game, then what else are they willing to do? When has this sort of behavior gotten them what they wanted in the past that they would think that it might work out for their benefit in the future? To think that you actually stand a chance at 'breaking' your parents or getting them to give in to your demands through escalating bad behavior is a certain brand of irrational that would take reinforcement to go so far.